“Boyhood” Trailer: 12 Years Of A Kid Growing Up In Real Time [VIDEO]

Danny Gallagher

Director Richard Linklater–the man behind such memorable films as Dazed & Confused, A Scanner Darkly and Bernie,–has also spent the last 12 years making a movie called Boyhood. It wasn’t because the production was trapped in some bizarre development hell . He was just waiting for the cast to grow up.

The movie tells the story of a kid being raised by divorced parents, and going through the usual foibles of being shoved out of innocence and into the hell of puberty. The difference between that and other coming-of-age movies is that we literally watch the kid grow up along with the storytelling. Linklater wrote and started shooting the movie back in 2002, and revisited the project off and on over the next 12 years as the cast members grew up along with the story. Now he’s compiled all 12 years of footage into one continuous story for what’s sure to be his most ambitious project yet. The movie also stars Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette, Lorelei Linklater, and Ellar Coltrane in the film’s unique starring role…

This isn’t the first time that cinema has tried to capture what it’s like to literally grow up along with the series. Documentary filmmaker Michael Apted’s long running Up series follows the life of a family every seven years to see how they’ve grown and what’s happened to them in between films. Boyhood, of course, is a lot more ambitious. This one might be the most longest-anticipated movie ever.